Take Your Place

I've blogged often about how difficult it can be for a Catholic serious about applying the richness of the Church's teaching to the political realm--particularly at election time. Rarely does a single candidate support the approaches that are consistent with Catholic principles across the broad spectrum of issues. Often, we are forced to vote for the lesser of two evils.

The upcoming Presidential election seems to be no different. I was basically resigning myself to voting for an independent  candidate with no chance of winning, or casting my vote for a compromise candidate. The beautiful thing about connecting with networksof Catholics who are serious about the Faith is that one can basically discover new information and benefit from other people's research.

Michael over at Evangelical Catholicism has, indeed, identified a potential Presidential candidate that one could consider wholeheartedly--Mike Huckabee. Now, I've never actually heard of Mike Huckabee before, but here's how Michael describes him:

In my opinion, he is the closest thing there has been in recent decades to a solid candidate for Catholics who embrace the hope of an established pro-person society. He's not perfect, no, but he is pretty good.

Huckabee is a former Baptist preacher and current Governor of Arkansas. He's described himself as a "Paradoxical Republican": pro-life to highest degree, comfortable with schools teaching both evolution and creationism, fiscally conservative but not at the expensive of social services to the most vulnerable of society, pro-immigration reform and pro-immigration rights, supportive of aid for families who do not qualify for Medicaid but cannot afford prescriptions...the supposed paradoxes continue. I just call it decent politics.

For now, Huckabee is my early guy for the presidential race. He's a good choice over pro-choice Giuliani, Clinton, Obama and Biden. He's more moderate in his support of the war in Iraq than McCain. He has a bigger heart for immigrants and their children than Brownback, Clinton and McCain. I don't like him because he is a Republican (I never pick according to political party). I like him because he is fundamentally pro-person, and as a Catholic, I can only be pro-person in all the issues of life.

My only two reservations so far come from his strong support of the Second Amendment and his desire to impliment a flat tax. But these are smaller positions that I can live with.

Of course, I may change my mind as campaigns progress, but for now, I'm going with Huckabee as the choice for Catholics. Stay tuned for a series of posts filled with quotes from Huckabee on issues of life and economics.

I'm looking forward to researching Governor Huckabee and digesting the thoughtful analysese of other voters. At least now there's someone I can potentially feel good about supporting. We'll see what happens as the campaign continues.

Stay tuned.